~Yale Arts Library Blog~

In a good article highlighting the growing problem of art theft, Geoffrey Clarfield criticizes what he calls a policy of “appeasement” that encourages crime and manages to throw in a jab at Yale for waiting over a century before returning artifacts stolen from Machu Picchu.

Art owners and museums still pay huge ransoms for stolen art. Our publicly funded museums and private auction houses have encouraged illegal trade by buying imported antiquities and muddling their provenance. Anyone who buys antiquities smuggled out of Iraq is indirectly paying for the civil war there.

In the 1930s, the British had a word for such behaviour, “appeasement.” It would be wise for museums and the public to reject and actively oppose this underground trade and its addiction to paid ransoms.

Stop the appeasement of art and antiques thieves Geoffrey Clarfield Globe and Mail 7/5/08

Posted by Chris

“Experts have confirmed ‘Rembrandt Laughing’ — bought for a bargain price of $4.5 million at an English auction house in October — is a self-portrait by the Dutch master himself, depicted with his head tilted back in easygoing laughter.”

‘Rembrandt Laughing’ is self-portrait
ANRICA DEB, Yahoo News 6/18/08

Posted by: Tanya

Image: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art ArtDaily.org

“In a period of little over fifteen years, beginning in the early 1960s, Mr. Mellon assembled one of the world’s greatest collections of British drawings and watercolors. As part of his extensive collecting, he purchased several distinguished private collections of British watercolors, enriching and expanding them with astute purchases reflecting his own taste… Through his beneficent gift of his collection to Yale, the Center houses more than 50,000 drawings, watercolors, and printsthe largest and most representative collection of British art on paper outside the United Kingdom.”

Check out Tom MacMillan’s excellent blog covering art and music in New Haven, Signals and Noise.

He recently covered the Olive Tree Circus’ (seen above) fund raiser for their trip to Palestine. More on the circus here.

Posted by Chris

India plans huge ‘liberty’ statue Prachi Pinglay BBCNews 6/3/08

“The statue will be of the Maratha warrior king Shivaji, considered a hero in Maharashtra for his defiance of Mughal and British forces… Vishal Dhage, a state government official, said the statue would be about the same height as the Statue of Liberty - which, with plinth included, stands at 305ft (92.69m).”

Posted by Chris

Image: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Robert Rauschenberg, Titan of American Art, Is Dead at 82 Michael Kimmelman NYT 5/14/08

The Mayor’s Community Arts Grants Program has been designed to support the community by providing financial, marketing and technical assistance for arts and cultural related programs, projects and events which occur in New Haven neighborhoods.

Individuals who are presenting, teaching or practicing artists and non-profit arts organizations working with neighborhood-based community and/or youth or senior groups in the City of New Haven. Eligible activities include: festivals, parades, exhibitions, murals/public art, children’s activities, inter-generational programs, arts education, film, public performances, neighborhood collaborations and apprenticeships.

The application deadline is June 4, 2008. A total of $25,000 will be awarded through grants up to $2,000. The grant application package is available for download on the City’s website, visit this website. For more information about the program, please contact Kim Futrell at (203) 946-7172 or kfutrell@newhavenct.net.

Press release here.

Photo: Ettore Ferrari/EPA

“Almost 50 years ago, archaeologists searching for the ruined house of Augustus found a tiny clue buried deep in 2,000 years’ worth of rubble overlooking the Forum in Rome.”

House of Augustus’ opens to public Christian Frasier BBCNews 3/9/08

Slide-shows here and here. And more on the Palantine Hill here.

And Yale Summer Session in Rome.

Posted by Chris

Sydney photo by kwasiak

The Art History Newsletter posted a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index stats in “Art History and Criticism.” Yale ranked 5th. At the risk of sounding like an apologist for not winning, placing, or showing, some have apparently criticized the Index for using faulty data. The official statistics get released in September, when we will separate the wheat from the chaff. In the meantime…

GASP!

1. Harvard U.
2. Columbia U.
3. U. of Pennsylvania
4. New York U.
5. Yale U.
5. U. of Virginia
7. U. of Texas at Austin
8. U. of California at Berkeley
9. U. of Chicago
10. U. of Pennsylvania

Posted by: Ian M.

“Peru says Yale University researchers took more than 40,000 artifacts from the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu in the early 1900s, or 10 times the original estimate, the state news agency reported on Sunday.”

Peru says Yale has over 40,000 Machu Picchu relics Reuters 4/13/08

More here.

Posted by Chris

“After more than a year of talks, Yale University has backed away from its plan for an arts institute in Abu Dhabi, involving Yale’s art, music, architecture and drama schools.

“The stumbling block, ultimately, was Abu Dhabi’s insistence that Yale offer degree programs at the institute, and Yale’s refusal to grant its degrees in Abu Dhabi.”

Yale Moves Away From Plans for Link With Abu Dhabi TAMAR LEWIN New York Times 4/12/08

“The arts institute would also have been in step with efforts at a number of Yale’s peer schools, who are increasingly turning to Abu Dhabi and other Middle Eastern nations to establish academic partnerships. In the most ambitious of efforts, New York University announced in October that it will open a full-fledged liberal arts college in Abu Dhabi — one that will offer the same degrees students could earn at the New York City campus.”

Yale drops plans for Abu Dhabi: University refuses to offer full Yale degrees from proposed Abu Dhabi arts institute
4/11/08 Yale Daily News Thomas Kaplan and Nora Wessel

Posted by: Tanya

Shin appeals sentence for forged degree amid media confusion Yale Daily News 4/4/08 Thomas Kaplan

“A Korean court may have already ruled in the matter, but it now appears that the epic saga commonly known as ‘Shingate’ is anything but over.”

Posted by: Tanya

Allan Appel

“Hill Regional Career High School seniors Malik Graves and Lorraine Gabriel know plenty of people their age who have enlisted in the armed forces for the bonus money. They are exactly the audience artist Baptiste Ibar hoped would view his ‘Guided Men,’ Artspace’s latest installation in The Lot, tucked away just in from the corner at Chapel and Orange.”

“Guided Men” at the Lot Allan Appel NHI 3/4/08

Posted by Chris

Edward Ruscha. Phillips 66, Flagstaff, Arizona, 1962. From Twenty-Six Gasoline Stations, 1963. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © Ed Ruscha.

The exhibit on artist Ed Ruscha’s long standing use of photography is currently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago. Last weekend I attended a symposium on Ruscha, featuring the man himself. The highlight of his talk was a comparison of the portraits on the $10 & $20 bills. The subtly different portraits, Ruscha claimed, convey different messages. The old Jackson is a model of dignity while the new Jackson looks like a guy waiting in line at Starbucks. See for yourself. Oh, and other people talked about Ruscha’s work and its relationship to photography, including noted rabble rouser Dave Hickey.

Swiss Police Recover Masterpieces HELENA BACHMANN 2/19/08 Time

“Two of the four paintings stolen at gunpoint earlier this month from a Zurich museum were found in good condition Sunday afternoon, the police reported on Tuesday. But efforts continue to catch the thieves and find the other two stolen masterpieces.

“Monet’s Poppies near Vétheuil and van Gogh’s Blossoming Chestnut Branches were found in a parking lot of a Zurich psychiatric hospital. The two other looted paintings, Cezanne’s The Boy in the Red Vest and Degas’ Count Lepic and His Daughters, are still missing.”

“…One thing art theft movies tend to have in common is that they dwell on the heist and not on the aftermath, for reasons that are probably more than cinematic: art is an exceedingly dumb thing to steal.

“The most valuable examples, usually paintings, are also the most highly recognizable and therefore almost impossible to resell or to display anywhere. When thieves try they are often caught. And so most real art bandits don’t exude quite the élan of a Nolte or Brosnan or even of a good, methodical jewel thief. In fact, they are often found pretty far down the ladder of professional purloining, acting on impulse or opportunity in a world in which museums are still relatively unguarded public spaces. And in many cases, to put it bluntly, art thieves are just not very good.”

Posted by: Tanya